. When Locke opens her mouth – to enquire why there's a Native American tied to a post and to insist the hotelier 'cut the poor man free, spit spot!' – her crystalline consonants are still the purest Poppins. But within minutes she's laid out cold by a solid slug to the jaw. Her rape and murder appear imminent. Mary Poppins, this ain't. 'What it is,' explains Blick, 'is the origin story of modern America. It's about the cost of putting that first stake in the ground. The English recognises the strength that took – but also whose land was taken. It's a reflection on a genocidal story, the original sin of America.' The English is set in the late 19th century as European settlers scramble for land across the Atlantic, massacring, displacing or assimilating Native Americans as they go. Locke arrives 15 years after her former beau Thomas Trafford (Tom Hughes), seeking vengeance for the mysterious death of her son. She soon teams up with Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), a former Pawnee Scout – one of many Native Americans recruited by the United States Army between 1864 and 1871, to fight the Cheyenne and the Sioux – who is on his way to claim land he has earned in Nebraska. For Blick, the new series represents a shift of geography, but not of fundamental theme. The 57-year-old writer and director has spent much of his career interrogating 'schisms in our culture and society', as he puts it. His award-winning 2014 drama The Honourable Woman (starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Stephen Rea) was set largely in the Middle East, while 2018's Black Earth Rising (with Michaela Coel and John Goodman) dug into th){kind=link}
Cowboys, corsets and a baddie who barks like a dog. How violent, all-star drama The English turns ‘America’s original sin’ into must-see TV
In the opening scenes of The English, Hugo Blick’s epic six-part Western for BBC Two, a dusty stagecoach draws up at an isolated hotel in the American desert, and a woman in a huge flouncy pink frock steps out. She is Lady Cornelia Locke, as played by Emily Blunt: the British actress known for bringing Disney’s magical singing nanny back to the screen in Mary Poppins Returns (2018). When Locke opens her mouth – to enquire why there’s a Native American tied to a post and to insist the hotelier “cut the poor man free, spit spot!” – her crystalline consonants are still the purest Poppins. But within minutes she’s laid out cold by a solid slug to the jaw. Her rape and murder appear imminent. Mary Poppins, this ain’t.
“What it is,” explains Blick, “is the origin story of modern America. It’s about the cost of putting that first stake in the ground. The English recognises the strength that took – but also whose land was taken. It’s a reflection on a genocidal story, the original sin of America.”
The English is set in the late 19th century as European settlers scramble for land across the Atlantic, massacring, displacing or assimilating Native Americans as they go. Locke arrives 15 years after her former beau Thomas Trafford (Tom Hughes), seeking vengeance for the mysterious death of her son. She soon teams up with Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), a former Pawnee Scout – one of many Native Americans recruited by the United States Army between 1864 and 1871, to fight the Cheyenne and the Sioux – who is on his way to claim land he has earned in Nebraska.
For Blick, the new series represents a shift of geography, but not of fundamental theme. The 57-year-old writer and director has spent much of his career interrogating “schisms in our culture and society”, as he puts it. His award-winning 2014 drama The Honourable Woman (starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Stephen Rea) was set largely in the Middle East, while 2018’s Black Earth Rising (with Michaela Coel and John Goodman) dug into the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.